A Golden Age - Couverture souple

'Beautifully observed . . . lingers in the memory . . . Daily life in Dhaka - from gin rummy to gardening - is captured with skill and tenderness' (Sunday Telegraph)

'This is storytelling at its best . . . A beautiful story of hope, heroism and human survival amid cruelty. Everyone should read this and learn' (Helen Lederer, Daily Express)

'My reader adored this Guardian and Costa-shortlisted debut and was happy to compare it with The God of Small Things and Brick Lane' (Bookseller)

'Anam achieves a delicacy and tenderness in conjuring the "threads of feeling" between people, a poetic precision of images: kites floating, huts sinking into the sea, "hungry, cracked earth". From the wreckage and destruction grows a voice of real eloquence' (Anita Sethi, Independent)

'Anam has created for Bangladesh what Romesh Gunesekera managed for Sri Lanka: a ballad for perserverance . . . A Golden Age pays tribute, with sensitivity and restrained passion, to those who fought for one such arbour: a country to call home' (Christian House, Independent on Sunday)

'Anam has her own distinctive voice . . . the authenticity shines through Anam's beautiful, simple prose' (Martha Kearney, Harper's Bazaar)

'A stunning novel lays bare a mother's ordeal in the gulf between the two Pakistans' (Observer)

'A Golden Age compellingly twists the personal and the historical, humming with handed down wisdom' (Richard Godwin, Literary Review)

'Vivid . . . momentous change and heartbreaking dilemmas' (Publishing News)

'I'd put a few bob on Tahmima Anam - the extract from her novel-in-progress . . . is a vivid and intriguing slice of Bangladesh in 1959' (Written following the publication of Bedford Square, an anthology of new writing from Poet Laureate Andrew Motion's Creative Writing Programme at Royal Holloway, which included an extract from A Golden Age) (The Times)

In the spring of 1971, Rehana Haque is throwing a party for her two children. What she does not know is that, after today, their lives will change forever. For this is East Pakistan, a country erupting into war. As she struggles to keep her children safe, Rehana will find herself faced with a heartbreaking dilemma. Set against the backdrop of the Bangladesh War of Independence, A Golden Age is an unforgettable story of revolution, hope and unexpected heroism, and of the great lengths that can be traversed in the name of love.